name and worship Him. We have come into this place
to call upon His name and worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Jesus Christ the
Lord. We are debtors to His grace,
the law's been satisfied, now worship Him. We are debtors to
His grace, the law's been satisfied, now worship Him. We are debtors to his grace,
the law's been satisfied, now worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Jesus Christ the
Lord. He is all our righteousness,
I stand in Him complete, now worship Him. He is all our righteousness,
I stand in Him complete, now worship Him. He is all our righteousness. I stand in Him complete. Now worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Jesus Christ the
Lord. May God give us the grace to
worship Him in spirit and in truth. Let's stand together,
Brother Bert. 296, number 296. All the way my Savior leads me,
what have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy,
who through life has been my guide? Heavenly peace, divinest
comfort, here by faith in Him to dwell. For I know what e'er
befall me, Jesus, to it all things dwell. For I know what e'er befall
me, Jesus, to it all things dwell. All the way my Savior leads me,
cheers each winding path I tread. Gives me grace for every trial,
Feeds me with the living bread. Though my weary steps may falter,
And my soul a thirst may be, Gushing from the rock before
me, Blow a spring of joy I see. Gushing from the rock before
me, Lo, what a joy I see! All the way my Savior leads me,
O the fullness of His love! Perfect rest to me is promised
In my Father's house above When my spirit clothed immortal Wings
its flight to realms of day This my song through endless ages
Jesus led me all the way This my song through endless ages,
Jesus led me all the way. It's a big deal. It's not a big
deal that I do it. That's for certain. Turn with me, please, if you
would, in the word of God to John chapter 6. John chapter 6. And we have a
fair amount of teachers in our congregation. But I want us to
look at the true teacher. I heard a, I seen an interview
one time about a basketball coach. And reports were really ripping
into him about the low graduation rate of his players. And they
asked him, how many of your players get a good education? And it
has application, we'll see. And I thought it was a good answer.
He said, everyone that wants one. How many people have we talked
about? Everyone that wants to be. but we need to be made wanting,
don't we? Verse 32, Then Jesus said unto
these Jews, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not
that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread
from heaven. Talk to Sunday school, these
Jews couldn't understand the difference between Christ and
this physical bread. Lord Grace, we use your Example
of the subway You asked for subway, and they sent in England. They
send you to a shop They didn't know what you meant by Looking
for the train the bread of God is he which cometh down from
heaven and giveth life unto the world Then said they unto him
Lord evermore give us this bread and Jesus said unto them I am
the bread of life and He that cometh to me shall never hunger,
and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto
you that you also have seen me and believeth not." You've been
in my presence and you still don't believe. And I love verse 37. This is
my encouragement. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. Not one's not going to come.
And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not
to do my own will, but the will of God the Father that sent me.
And this is the Father's will which has sent me, that all which
he hath given me, God the Father gave Christ a
fixed number of people that I would lose nothing. He's not going
to try. He's going to be successful.
Everyone that he gives them, he's going to say, but should
raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of
him that sent me that everyone would see it. The son and believeth
on him may have ever lasting, everlasting life. And I will
raise him up the last day. And the Jews then murmured at
him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.
And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father
and mother we know? All they could see in Christ
was his humanity. They could not see him as God.
Jesus therefore answered and said among them, murmur not among
yourselves. Verse 44. No man can come to
me. And they won't come because they
don't want to come. They'll come to religion, they'll
come to doctrine, but they won't come to Christ. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me must draw him. We would have
not come to Christ unless God had not made us willing. And
I will raise him up at the last day. Verse 45 is the one that
has drawn me to these verses. And it is written in the prophets,
and they, every one of God's elect, shall be all taught of
God. And every man therefore that
hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. We shall all be taught of God. In a few minutes, our brother
and the man God has sent for us is going to stand here, Brother
Greg, and other gospel preachers, and they're going to declare
the truth God willing of Christ. But if you and I are to learn
anything about him, God's going to have to teach us. We pray that God enable him to
deliver the truth. But oh, may God teach us. I want
to make two comments. The first one is, is that God teaches every one
of his children the same things. The very same things. He may
teach them at various times to us, but he will not teach Adam
knew something about Christ and me something different. He teaches
them all the same thing. Everyone. And the second thing is God is
not going to use a lie to teach his children the truth. If the gospel of God's grace
is not declared truthfully, he's not going to teach them.
I had a person tell me having a hard time. They said,
uh, I work with a lot of Christians in my work. And that person said, uh, now
they don't believe the same we do, but they're Christians and
they always encourage me. And I hope, I hope I was right. I said, no. I said, you're wrong. I said, you work with a bunch
of religious people. Because God teaches every one of his
children the same thing. If they were Christians, they
would believe what we believe. That's just the truth. I don't
have to say it any plainer than that. And that is the beauty of the
church, isn't it? The unity of the brethren, that
we all believe the same thing. I'm always amazed that people
come, we've never met them, come from a different church, and
they rejoice just like we do, because we've all been taught
by one teacher. Join me in prayer, please. Lord, I pray that you would enable
me to pray. We pray for your servant who
you sent to us. We thank you for them. We thank
you for Brother Greg and Trish, and we thank you for the other
gospel preachers and their wives. Lord, we pray you would comfort
them and encourage them and that you would put in their hearts
the words you had once spoken this morning. Oh Lord, that you would use them
to declare Christ to us. And Lord, we pray that by your
Spirit you would teach us of Christ and that you would give
us faith to believe. And for those who are outside
of Christ, we pray, Lord, We know that unless you change them
and make them willing, that they will never come. But Lord, we
also know that's how you save sinners, because you did that
for us, or we would have never come had you not made us willing.
We ask that you be glorified in all things. Amen. I'd like to sing now the hymn
number 318. Number 318, if y'all could please
stand. I need thee every hour. Number
318. I need Thee every hour, most
gracious Lord. No tender voice like Thine can
peace afford. I need Thee, O I need Thee, every
hour I need Thee. O bless me now, my Savior, I
come to Thee. I need Thee every hour, stay
Thou nearby. Temptations lose their power
when Thou art nigh. I need Thee, O I need Thee, every
hour I need Thee. O bless me now, my Savior, I
come to Thee. I need Thee every hour in joy
or pain. Come quickly and abide or life
is vain. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee, O bless
me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour,
Most Holy One, O make me Thine indeed, Thou blessed Son. I need Thee, O I need Thee, Every
hour I need Thee, O bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. You can be seated. I'm trying to decide whether
to share this, and I guess I will. I just thought of it. Romans, I think it's in chapter
6, says that if we're dead, then we're free from the law. The
law has no power over a dead man. And I, like you, have been listening
to all the foolishness surrounding the events that took place in
our city last Saturday. Why can't we pass laws to restrain
such behavior? If a man is determined to die,
there's not a single law that can be passed that will restrain
that. He's already dead. In his mind,
he's dead. A person who's committed to commit
some horrific crime and die doing it, there's not a single law
that will restrain that. Psalm 76 says, the wrath of man
shall praise him and the remainder shall he restrain. I mentioned this Wednesday night. The thing that amazes me about
what took place in our city last Saturday night is not that it
happened, but why it doesn't happen every day, every day. And the answer to that is that
God restrains it. The only hope that you and I
have for the Lord to protect us is for Him to restrain evil
from us. His hands or mine? His hands or mine? That's the
title of the message this morning and I'd like to begin by reading
A passage of scripture that John read in the study this morning
before the service from 1st John chapter 1. 1st John chapter 1. That which was from the beginning,
verse 1, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the
word of life. John's talking about Christ.
He's the Word that was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld
His glory as the glory of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and full of truth. To know Christ is to have life. This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou
hast sent. Your greatest need, and my greatest
need, is to know Christ. And if we're going to know Him,
He must reveal Himself to us. And if He's going to reveal Himself
to us, it's going to be by His Word. By His Word. For the life was manifested and
we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal
life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself
is the spirit of prophecy. In the volume of the book, it
is written of me. I like what I heard one preacher
say, wherever I'm preaching from, I take my text and make a beeline
to the cross. And that's the only way to preach
the Word of God. The question is why John, I quoted
this earlier in John chapter 20 verse 30 and many other signs
truly did Jesus in the presence of disciples which are not written
in this book but these are written that you might believe that Jesus
is the Christ the Son of God and that believing you might
have life through his name. So the whole purpose of this
book Faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the Word
of God. And God's given us His Word in
order to reveal to us the Living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. For Christ Himself is our life. Why do we study the Bible? Hardly
a week goes by that I don't hear someone say, well, you know,
the Old Testament's really not relevant. Only a person devoid
of the Spirit of God would make such a statement. If God's given you His Spirit,
you know that all His Word. I love when the Lord met with
the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and He, beginning with
Moses and the Psalms and the Prophets, expounded unto them
those things concerning Himself. And then He opened their eyes
that they might see. Now, men by nature are more concerned
with how they look before other men than they are with how they
look before God. We love the praise of man more
than the praise of God. Unless God puts it on your soul
to have a concern for how you look to Him, you will live your
life in the bondage and slavery of pleasing other men. And many people study the Bible
for the purpose of getting an advantage with other men. I speak
by experience. I did it for years. If I can
learn some history, if I can quote some Bible, if I can learn
some theology and some doctrine, I can get an advantage over you.
We can get in a debate and I can show you what I know and knowledge
puffs up. Knowledge puffs up. We don't study the Bible in order
to get an advantage over our fellow man. We look to God's
Word looking for Christ because He's the one that we need. I need Him every hour. We just sang that, didn't we?
You know, oftentimes we sing that hymn and we're thinking
as we're singing that hymn during those dark hours of trials and
trouble and persecution and affliction. But the hour that we need Him
most is the hour that we're in right now. Because this is the place, Zion,
is where the Lord makes Himself known. This is the place where
He's pleased to make Himself known through the foolishness
of preaching, through the declaration of His Word. Now, I wanted to
preface this message on my hands or His with that with that introduction
because we're going to be looking at some Old Testament stories
that unless you have an eye toward Christ, you will only look at
these stories as Bible stories. Perhaps you'll
make an attempt, Genesis chapter 27, perhaps you will make an
attempt, as many self-righteous religious folk do, to glean some
sort of moral lesson from these stories. Again, so that you can
raise your level of outward morality, cleaning up the outside of the
plate, cleaning up the outside of the cup. For what purpose? To impress men. It's the inside
that's full of corruption. It's the heart that's wicked
and deceitful above all things that no man can know. We need
to be looking to God's Word and looking to these Old Testament
stories, not for the purpose of having knowledge or information,
not for the purpose of trying to glean some moral lesson that
is going to, again, give us an advantage over our fellow man,
but in order to see, what does this story tell me about the
gospel? What's it tell me about Christ?
because he's the one I need. And I'm not interested in just
discovering something clever for the sake of, oh wow, I never
would have saw that before. I want to leave here believing
on Christ and knowing that that story is really about Him. It's really about Him. The story in Genesis chapter
27 is that story about Esau and Jacob. And Jacob stealing by
deceit Esau's blessing from his father Isaac. You remember Isaac
sends out Esau into the field to hunt for venison and to bring
to him a savory meal so that at that meal he could bestow
his blessings upon his firstborn, Esau. And when Esau leaves to
go out into the field, Rebekah, Jacob and Esau's mother, takes
Jacob and dresses him up like Esau, puts Esau's clothes on
him, takes the hair from, because the Bible says that Esau was
a hairy man, and Jacob was a smooth man, and Jacob wanted to present
himself to his father Isaac, who was blind in his old age,
as Esau. and to get the blessing. Now
Rebecca had already been told of God that the older will serve
the younger. Rebecca had already been given
by divine revelation that Jacob was the one that was to get the
blessing. And so she's getting involved in order to
bring that about. The wrath of man shall praise
thee. Was what Jacob did right? Was
what Rebecca did right? Was what they did right in terms
of deceiving Isaac and doing what they did? No. No more than
what Joseph's brothers did was right in selling him into slavery. But what was the conclusion of
that story? You meant it for evil. God meant
it for good. We have a God who takes even
the evil designs of our bad, sinful behavior and will turn
it to His glory. And what He can't use, He will
restrain. And the greatest example of that
is Calvary's cross. When God allowed man to exercise
the greatest evil that man has ever perpetrated in the history
of mankind. The killing of the Son of God. By your wicked hands you have
crucified and slain the Son of God. That's what Paul told that
group of people on the day of Pentecost. But what you meant
for evil, God meant it for good. Well, this was predetermined
and ordained of God for your salvation. What a great God we
serve. We don't read these stories and
think, well, we've got to glean some sort of moral lesson out
of how to be more honest in our dealings. What does this story
tell me about Christ, and how did God illustrate the gospel
in this story? Turn back just a page or two
to chapter 25 and look with me at verse 22. Rebecca is barren and Isaac intercedes
for her and the Lord hears the prayers of Isaac and gives Rebecca
the blessing of pregnancy. but there's twins in her womb.
And those ladies that have given birth to children know what it
feels like to have a child moving around in their womb. I cannot
begin to imagine what that'd be like. But to have twins fighting
in your womb, that's what they were doing. And the children
struggled together within her, and said, If it is so, why am
I thus? And she went to inquire of the
Lord. And the Lord said unto her, Two
nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be
separated from thy bowels, and the one people shall be stronger
than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger. I don't know what it'd be like
to have, to be pregnant, have children, wrestling, but I do
know the spiritual meaning of that. There's two nations in
me. There's the old man and there's
the new man. And the spirit wars against the
flesh and the flesh against the spirit so that I cannot be what
I would be. But at the end of the day, the
old man serves the new man. Because every time he rears his
ugly head, he causes me to see my need for Christ. There's two
nations within you. But the older is going to serve
the newer, the younger. He's going to lead. Is that your
experience? Is that your experience? My grace
is sufficient for you. That's what Paul was saying.
Lord, take this old nature away. That's the thorn in my flesh.
Nope, not going to do it. My strength is made perfect in
your weakness. For when you're weak, then you're
strong. Why? Because the old man is serving
the new man. These are gospel stories. It
does my soul no profit to learn a story for the sake of learning
a story. It does my soul no profit. It
does this sinner's soul no benefit to be able to quote scripture
or to be able to draw, glean some sort of moral application
from a Bible story. I need to be saved. I've got
a struggle in my womb. I've got two natures. I've got
an old man that's always there. Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? Thanks be to God through Christ
Jesus I am free. There is now therefore no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus. Lord, raise up the new man. Cause me to have hope in knowing
that as He is, so am I, right now, in this world, in my new
man. And that one day this body of
flesh, this corruptible body of flesh,
is going to be put back where it came from. And I'm going to receive a new
body. Oh, I'm going to see him as he
is and be made like him. And those things that the Apostle
Paul could find no words to describe are going to be my experience.
That's what I need. I don't need you to give me some
religious rabbit foot or some trinket of truth that's going
to help me get through another day in this world. I need to
have hope for my soul. I need to have eternal life.
I need to be saved. I need to have my sins put away.
That's what these stories are all about. And so she gives birth to these
two children. And the Bible tells us in Romans
chapter 9 that there's another way in which
Esau and Jacob are to be understood. Esau and Jacob are the two natures
in me. They're the two natures in you
if you're a child of God. If the Lord's not saved you,
you've only got one nature. You don't know about the struggle
between the spirit and the flesh until you receive a new nature.
And then that struggle becomes your daily experience. Romans chapter 9 the Lord gives
us another way in which to understand Esau and Jacob when he says the
children being not yet born nor having done any good or evil
that the purpose of God according to election might stand the older
shall serve the younger For Jacob I have loved and Esau I have
hated. And so Jacob and Esau, they're
not just Old Testament characters. They represent my two natures.
They represent God's elect and the reprobate. Those that the Lord has placed
his love on are Jacob. The purpose of God, according
to election, might stand, not according to works, before the
children had done anything good or evil. So it is with the salvation of
our souls. Before we've done any good or
evil, God, in the covenant of grace, loved Jacob. He loved Jacob. And despite all the sin of Jacob,
he purposed to save him. If you have your Bibles open to Genesis chapter 27, let's
begin reading at verse 18. unto his father, this is Jacob
now coming to Isaac, deceiving his father Isaac, who the scripture
says in verse 1 of chapter 27, could not see. His eyes were
dim due to old age. Some of us know about having
dim eyes due to old age and were thankful for glasses. Isaac didn't have glasses. You
get old, lose your eyesight, you just go blind. And he came unto his father and
said, My father. And he said, Here am I. Who art thou, my son? And Jacob
said unto his father, I am Esau, thy firstborn, I have done according
as thou badest me. Now hold your finger there and
turn with me to Isaiah chapter 42. Isaiah chapter 42. This is glorious. If you're a
sinner in need of a Savior, if you're looking to the Word of
God to find Christ, this is glorious. You see, the way I want us to
understand Genesis chapter 27 is to see Esau as our elder brother,
the firstborn among many brethren, and to see Jacob as ourselves.
and to see Isaac as God. Look what, say, well, how could,
how could God be blind? Well, look here at Isaiah chapter
42 and look at verse 19. Who is blind but my servant,
or deaf as my messenger that I sent? Who is blind as he that
is perfect, blind as the Lord's servant? Now who is he talking
about? Look at verse 1 of Isaiah 42. Behold my servant, whom I
uphold, mine elect. This whole chapter is talking
about Christ. And now the Lord's saying that the Lord Jesus Christ
is blind. Just like Isaac, couldn't see.
Look at the next. Seeing many things, but thou
observest not. Opening the ears, but they heareth
not. The Lord is well pleased for
his righteousness sake, and he will magnify the law and make
it honorable. So that's what this story's about. Jacob, as a type of the child
of God, going before his father and presenting himself on behalf
of his brother and taking advantage of the fact that his father's
blind. And the Lord tells us, I've separated
your sins as far as the east is from the west. I remember
them no more. seeing many things, but observing
not. You go before God and present your sins before Him.
What sins are you talking about? As He is, so are we. Your sins
have been put away. When I see the blood now, then
I'll pass by you. And the stain of sin doesn't
go as deep as the blood. It's gonna cleanse every stain. Who is so blind as my servant?
That's what I need. I need a God that's blind to
my sin. Do you need that? I mean, he can't see him. He
looks at me, he sees the Lord Jesus Christ. That's all he sees. If God Almighty, His eyes are
too pure to look upon sin, if He sees one stain left on me,
one little speck of sin, one minor infraction as I might consider
it to be, I'm going to hell for it. I need Him to be blind. And so Jacob goes before his
father. His father says, who are you? He says, I'm your son,
Esau. You go before God Almighty, don't
use your own name. Don't use your own name. Don't
say, this is Donny, this is Tricia. Don't give them your name. My name is Christ. My name is
righteousness. He has made the law honorable
for me. And she shall be called the Lord
our righteousness. You're not gonna get in on your
own name. You're gonna get in on His name.
For His namesake. We looked Wednesday night at
a passage, turn to me, to, Genesis chapter 30. Laban, remember now Jacob has
to flee the wrath of his brother Esau and goes to be with his
uncle Laban. And Laban takes advantage of
Jacob and Jacob's about ready to leave 20 years later. Jacob
stayed there 20 years. And look what Laban says in verse
27. And Laban said unto him, I pray
thee, I beg with you. Laban is talking to Jacob. Jacob,
I beg you, if I have found favor in thy sight, tarry, for I have
learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your
sake. Is that your experience? That's
our cry, isn't it? Lord, I pray thee. If I found
grace in thy sight, that's what the word favor is. Terry, present
yourself in my stead. Present yourself before God on
my behalf. Speak for me. For I have learned by experience
that all the blessings of God are yea and amen in Christ. And all spiritual blessings are
in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. And apart from Him, I've got
no hope of being blessed. No hope of being blessed. So
Jacob now goes before his father, Isaac, in the name of his elder
brother, Esau. And he presents himself to Esau
as his brother. Go back with me to Genesis chapter
27. I am Esau, verse 19, thy firstborn. I have done according as thou
badest me. He made the law of God honorable. We can go before God and say,
I'm your righteousness. I have obeyed everything you
gave me to do. In the person of my substitute,
the law has been fulfilled. Arise, I pray thee, sit and eat
of my venison, that my soul, that thy soul may bless me. Lord,
I need to be blessed. I need to be saved. I need you
to take away my sin. And Isaac said unto his son,
How is it that thou found it so quickly, my son? And he said,
Because the Lord thy God brought it to me. And that's the only way that
you and I are going to meet Christ, is if the Lord God brings him
to us. And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come
near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee my son, whether thou
be my very son Esau or not. And Jacob went near unto Isaac
his father, and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob's
voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. When you cry out
for God's mercies and for God's blessings, it's your voice. But if you go before him on the
basis of anybody else's hands than the hands of your elder
brother, the firstborn among many brethren, you won't be accepted. And then he saw Isaac smells
Jacob. And Jacob had Esau's clothes
on. And he said, the smell is the
smell of Esau. And when this Bible speaks of
God smelling the sweet aroma of the sacrifice, he's talking
about prayers. And I love it. We pray and our
prayers are bottled up, the Scripture says in Revelation, and received
by God for Christ's sake. When we conclude our prayers
and say, in Jesus' name I pray, what we're acknowledging is that
the only hope that I have that any of my prayers would be acceptable
to God is if I have an intercessor to present them on my behalf. I cannot go to God apart from
Christ. Don't you love it when The Lord
told Peter, Peter, before the cock crows, you're going to deny
me three times, but be of good cheer, Peter, I've prayed for
you. What made the difference between
Peter and Judas? They both did the same thing
that night. They did the same thing. What
made the difference? One was a child of Jacob, the other was
a child of Esau. One, the Lord prayed for and
the Father smelt his aroma and accepted him. You see, our prayers
are only accepted in Christ. The sweet smelling aroma. And
and when the Lord prayed in John chapter 17 father, I pray not
for the world I pray for them which thou has given me out of
the world Father thou has they were thine and that gave them
unto me and I've kept them and now I pray Lord that you would
keep them in this world and Bring them into glory. Oh We need the smell of his prayers
to go up before our Heavenly Father. We're not going to be accepted. The voice is Jacob's voice, but
the hands are the hands of Esau. Now there is a understanding
of scripture that comes from the first time something's mentioned
in the Bible, it gives us the definition for that thing. And the first time that the word
hand is mentioned in the Bible is found in Genesis chapter 3
verse 22, and the Lord said, behold the man is become as one
of us to know good and evil and now lest he put forth his hand
and take also of the tree of life and live forever the first
mention of man's hand in the Bible is disobeying God he took
the fruit from off that tree And God said, unless he take
that same defiled hand and eat of the tree of life and live
forever. And God stationed a cherubim
at the garden and cast Adam and Eve out of the garden so that
they could physically die in order to be able to receive eternal
life. So, the first time hand is mentioned,
has to do with plucking that fruit off the tree that God had
forbidden. The second time that hand is
mentioned is in Genesis chapter 4 verse 11, speaking of Cain,
thou art cursed from the earth which hath opened her mouth to
receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. So the hand of Cain
killing his brother Abel is the second mention of man's hand
in the scriptures. and over and over again throughout
the scriptures. You remember Uzzah putting his
hand to the ark? And God instructed the children
of Israel when they were to build an altar that they weren't to
put a tool to it or fashion it with their hands lest they defile
it. You see, from the very beginning,
our father Adam defiled our hands. If we try to present anything
to God that we have fashioned with our hands, that's our works,
will not be accepted. The voice, the voice is the voice
of Jacob, but the hands, those are the hands of Esau, the hands
of my older brother. His hands are the only ones that
aren't defiled. His hands are the only ones that
are acceptable before God. Turn with me to Acts chapter
17. Acts chapter 17. Why was it that the wounds on the body of
the Lord Jesus Christ had to do with the crown of thorns on
his head, the piercing of his hands, the piercing of his feet,
and the sword into his heart. Why was it? Because God was punishing
sin. And the Bible says that the head
is sick. It's sick. You and I are sick. We can't have a holy thought. Our minds are so, and the Lord
had to, he had to pay for that. The hands are defiled, and so
they had to be, look at my hands, Thomas. Because everything that
we produce with our hands is sinful before God. And our feet,
where have they taken us? We can't walk a straight line.
We can't stand upright before God. Our feet are defiled and
what about our hearts? It's deceitful and wicked above
all things. Who can know it? All those things
had to be punished. And the Lord showing us what
took place on Calvary's cross is what we have defiled, the
one who was undefiled, without sin, and holy before God, suffered
the wrath of God for the very things that are defiled in us. Acts chapter 17 verse 24, God
that hath made the world and all things therein, seeing that
he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made
with hands, neither is worshipped with man's hands, as though he
needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all
things. You can't worship God with your
hands. You can't build a building that's going to be acceptable
to him. You can't produce a work that's going to be acceptable
to him. Oh, there's so many illustrations
to this in the scriptures. You remember when Abraham sent
out his servant to get Isaac a wife, Rebecca? And Abraham
didn't want the wife of his son to come from the Canaanites,
so he told him to go back to Ur and get a daughter from his
relatives. and bring her. And Abraham made
the servant make an oath with him. Matter of fact, this happens
a couple times in the scriptures. And it happened with Jacob and
Joseph. When Jacob made a covenant with
Joseph to say, don't leave my bones in Egypt, right before
Jacob dies in Egypt. Jacob made Joseph promise that
he would take his bones back. And he did. Well, they did. But the oath was made by the
servant of Abraham and with Joseph and his father Jacob by putting
his hand under the thigh of Abraham. Or under the thigh of Jacob.
He said, put your hand under my thigh. And they made a covenant. What does that represent? If
you go to Revelation chapter 19, when the Lord Jesus Christ
comes in his glory to save his church, the scripture says, upon
his thigh is his name, Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Now
your thigh is the strongest muscle in your body. Your femur bone
is the strongest bone in your body. And so it's a picture of
the strength of Christ and the picture of our hiding our hand
under his strength. His strength is made perfect
in our weakness. Lord, let me put my defiled hand
under the thigh of Christ. It's the only hope I have. And
the only hope that the covenant would be fulfilled for me is
if my hands are hid under His thigh. Let me just read a few verses
and then we'll close. At thy right hand there are pleasures
evermore. Who is the right hand of God? This hand of Esau that Isaac
thought Jacob was his brother. He is at my right hand and I
shall not be moved. Thou savest by thy right hand
them which put their trust in thee. Thy salvation and thy right
hand hath held me up. I that the Lord saveth his anointed,
he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength
of his right hand." Here's the conclusion of the
message, brethren. Humble yourself. Humble yourself. Therefore, under
the mighty hand of God. that He may exalt you in due
time, casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for Your Word, and we're thankful for Your Holy Spirit, and we
ask, Lord, that You would cause us to be comforted to be blessed
and to be hope to be to be hopeful in the strong right hand of our
elder brother who has accomplished our work by himself. Well, we ask it in Christ's name.
Amen. Brother Bert, back of your bulletin,
let's stand together. God is our refuge and our strength,
our ever-present aid. And therefore, through the earth
removed, we will not be afraid. A river flows whose streams make
glad the city of our God. The holy church wherein the Lord
most high hath his abode. The Lord of Hosts is on our side,
all blessing to secure. The God of Jacob is our guide,
a refuge strong and sure. Be still and know that I am God,
for all exalted high. To utmost ends of all the earth,
my name shall magnify. Oh yeah!